PITTSBURGH \u2013 There were several reasons why the Flyers were able to hang a slightly surprising 3-2 defeat on the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 1 of their playoff series Saturday night:<\/p>\n
\u2022 They held the high-powered home team to just 17 shots by blocking a bunch and jamming up passing lanes to neutralize the setup wizardry of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Philadelphia delivered a whopping 40 hits, including a message-sending 18 in the first period alone.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Flyers kept the Penguins\u2019 vaunted power play off the scoreboard and only allowed them two opportunities with the man advantage.<\/p>\n
\u2022 And they got significant contributions from their young players, including rookie Porter Martone, whose first NHL playoff goal with 2:37 to play turned out to be the difference in this tightly contested game.<\/p>\n
This figured to be a tight-checking series but who could have imagined as low a scoring game as the Flyers and Penguins staged at PPG Paints Arena?<\/p>\n
Both teams held their cards close to their chest through two periods.\u00a0 Only two goals were scored in the first 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
It took a goal by Travis Sanheim at 10:00 of the third period to break the 1-1 tie. The best-of-seven series resumes here on Monday,<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet could find virtually no negatives to this team effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked our play without the puck,\u201d he began. \u201cWe\u2019ve really been good the last six weeks. We tried to stay in our identity. We knew they were going to come but everybody liked our play without the puck tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players such as Sanheim and Sean Couturier set the physical tone from the Flyers\u2019 side of things.<\/p>\n
![\"Penguins'](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776603996_615_TMC-L-Flyersss.jpg\")
Penguins\u2019 Sidney Crosby (87) checks Flyers\u2019 Sean Couturier off his skates during the second period of Game 1 in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh, Saturday. The Flyers won 3-2 to take a 1-0 lead in the series. (AP Photo\/Gene J. Puskar)<\/p>\n
\u201cI think \u2018Sanny\u2019 set the tone,\u201d Tocchet agreed. \u201cIn these playoff games you have to play uncomfortable. You have to do some stuff you don\u2019t normally do. He played a ton of minutes (23:20). And then to play\u00a0 physical like that is hard. To try to supply offense and kill penalties. It was a tough night and he really led the physicality for us. And obvious a hell of a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tocchet himself was a physical player so you don\u2019t have to convince him about the merits of playing a physical style.\u201cWhen you play a team like that, the players they have, you got to be a physical team,\u201d the coach said. \u201cThe one thing is you can\u2019t run around. The team that can do it (checking) over and over again is usually the successful one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jamie Drysdale broke a scoreless tie at 9:19 of the second. Trevor Zegras got the puck to Drysdale in the right circle and his low shot found its way past goalie Stuart Skinner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we just came in with real high intensity in that first period,\u201d Drysdale said. \u201c \u2018Coots\u2019 (Couturier) led the way. I think everyone kind of built off of that. We have confidence in this room. We\u2019re going to keep going the next game.\u201dCouturier thought the Flyers\u2019 physicality made the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s playoffs, everyone kind of steps up their intensity,\u201d he said. \u201cI just tried to have an impact any way I could early on. Physically I felt good. We were ready for the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
That edge held up until Flyers goalie Dan Vladar had trouble controlling the rebound of a Thomas Novak shot. Evgeni Malkin picked up the rebound and sent a shot past Vladar before he could recover at 15:51.<\/p>\n
The first period did not see any scoring but there was no shortage of physical contact. In fact, the Flyers were credited with 17 hits, which is well above average. Sean Couturier alone had five of them.<\/p>\n
What appeared to be a Christian Dvorak goal was waved off by officials after it was ruled he ran into Skinner, causing the puck to cross the line.<\/p>\n
The Flyers held a 10-5 edge in shots and appeared to have the majority of good scoring chances. Dvorak rattled a shot off a post in the first couple minutes but that\u2019s as close at the Flyers would get.<\/p>\n
Close rivalry<\/p>\n
This is the eighth time the Flyers and Penguins have met in the postseason with Philadelphia holding a 4-3 edge.Here\u2019s the year-by-year breakdown:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 1989: Division finals \u2013 Flyers, 4-3.<\/p>\n
\u2022 1997: Conferencer quarterfinals \u2013 Flyers, 4-1.<\/p>\n
\u2022 2000: Conference semifinals \u2013 Flyers, 4-2.<\/p>\n
\u2022 2008: Conference finals \u2013 Penguins, 4-1.<\/p>\n
\u2022 2009: Conference quarterfinals \u2013 Penguins, 4-2.<\/p>\n
\u2022 2012: Conference quarterfinals \u2013 Flyers, 4-2.<\/p>\n
\u2022 2018: Conference quarterfinals \u2013 Penguins, 4-2.<\/p>\n
Prior to Saturday night\u2019s game, the Flyers were 11-10 vs. the Penguins in Pittsburgh and 10-10 in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Lots of first-timers<\/p>\n
A total of 13 players were eligible for their first playoff action with the Flyers on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The list includes forwards Alex Bump, Noah Cates, Nikita Grebenkin, Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, Denver Barkey, Tyson Foerster and Porter Martone; defensemen Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, Emil Andrae and Rasmuc Ristolainen; goaltender Sam Ersson.<\/p>\n
Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2013 There were several reasons why the Flyers were able to hang a slightly surprising 3-2 defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,11211],"class_list":{"0":"post-556012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-dln"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116431525683735970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}